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Written by Dr Lish
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Are you one of the one in three women and one in five men who suffer from depression? If so, Feldenkrais and our own Repatterning Movement exercises may have some hidden benefits, because they are powerful mood lifters.
As a Feldenkrais Practitioner and psychotherapist, I continue to be amazed at how much more optimistic and at peace with themselves people feel after even a few minutes of hands-on work or Awareness Through Movement. For this reason ATMs are included in our international Uplift Program, which has a 94% success rate in lifting mood (based on follow-up questionnaires) and in our new book,Creating Optimism: A Proven, 7-Step Program for Overcoming Depression (McGraw-Hill, 20004).
Another great benefit of Feldenkrais is that it enables you to get the most from what medical researchers are now touting as a vital part of any treatment program for depression-walking. James Blumenthal, PhD of Duke University, says that a brisk 30-minute walk around the athletic track three times a week may be just as effective in relieving the symptoms of major depression as a standard treatment of anti-depressant medications.
But when you're depressed, walking or any movement often becomes more difficult. Depression actually slows down the brain, and that is reflected in lethargy and slow, sometimes even difficult movement. I suffered from depression for many years, and my husband Bob, who is a psychologist, said he could accurately gauge my mood from the speed of my gait. The lower my mood, the slower my movment. I remember it used to feel as if someone had dialed up the gravity level. Now I see the same phenomenon in my clients.
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Written by Dr Lish
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We have used Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement (ATM) concepts to create a variation on a traditional Buddhist walking meditation that harnessed the advantages of meditation, body awareness, and connection to nature.
This meditation is an excellent exercise to incorporate into your walking or relaxation routine, Repatterning Movement program or every-day spiritual practice. Great to boost both mood and self-awareness.
The walking we are about to do should, ideally, be on a natural, uneven surface. A park, forest or beach are perfect. Try to find a place or a time when there is relative quiet or at least little traffic or construction noise. Humans were not made to live with machines, nor were our feet made to walk on concrete.
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Written by Dr Lish
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For most women and men the push for 'fitness' has caused at least as much confusion, injury and guilt as it has physical health and enjoyment.
The word itself has come to mean to many people more about the flatness of a stomach (think of Princess Di and her bulemia, Ali McBeal and her skeletal appearance) or the bulges of the pectorals than about function, health and vitality. With all the marketing hype about what you must buy/eat/drink/not eat/not drink/wear/not wear, 'fitness' has probably done more for certain peoples' pockets than for anybody's wellbeing.
So how do we arrive at a true definition of fitness, one that takes into account the optimal goals for our bodies and our selves, and how do we achieve these?
To find the answers we need to look at how we evolved to live. What conditions did early humans live under and how was our genetic nature shaped to make the most of them?
In essence we are still hunter-gatherers. Our bodies and our social organization were geared over millions of years to carrying out the tasks necessary to hunting and gathering. Over the last five millennia a 'mismatch' has developed and widened between the way we live and the way we were meant to live. This has led to a whole range of assumptions about our bodies, our relationships, our work and our society that modern research is showing to be wrong and harmful.
Let's first examine the realities and myths about what a fit body is. Both men and women evolved to walk , the men in search of game and the women looking for berries, herbs, roots and so forth. Walking is, in fact, the best exercise a human can take, a fact supported by all recent studies. It has even been shown that this act of gentle weight-bearing prevents osteoporosis and stimulates the brain to think better.
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